"Quite a new one," said Miss Snevellicci, "of which this gentleman is the author, and in which he plays ; being his first appearance of any stage. Mr. Johnson is the gentleman's name."
"I hope you have preserved the unities, Sir?" said Mr. Curdle.
"The original piece is a French one," said Nicholas. " There is abundance of incident, sprightly dialogue, strongly-marked characters—"
"—All unavailing without a strict observance of the unities. Sir," returned Mr. Curdle. "The unities of the drama before everything."
"Might I ask you," said Nicholas, hesitating between the respect he ought to assume, and his love of the whimsical, "might I ask you what the unities are?"
Mr. Curdle coughed and considered. "The unities, Sir," he said, "are a completeness—a kind of a universal dove-tailedness with regard to place and time—a sort of a general oneness, if I may be allowed to use so strong an expression. I take those to be the dramatic unities, so far as I have been enabled to bestow attention upon them, and I have read much upon the subject, and thought much. I find, running through the performances of this child," said Mr. Curdle, turning to the phenomenon, "a unity of feeling, a breadth, a light and shade, a warmth of colouring, a tone, a harmony, a glow, an artistical development of original conceptions, which I look for in vain among older performers—I don't know whether I make myself understood?"
"Perfectly," replied Nicholas.
"Just so," said Mr. Curdle, pulling up his neckcloth. "That is my definition of the unities of the drama."
Mrs. Curdle had sat listening to this lucid explanation with great complacency, and it being finished, inquired what Mr. Curdle thought about putting down their names.
"I don't know, my dear; upon my word I don't know," said Mr. Curdle. "If we do, it must be distinctly understood that we do not pledge ourselves to the quality of the performances. Let it go forth to the world, that we do not give them the sanction of our names, but that we confer the distinction merely upon Miss Snevellicci. That being clearly stated, I take it to be, as it were, a duty, that we should extend our patronage to a degraded stage even for the sake of the associations with which it is entwined. Have you got two-and-sixpence for half-a-crown. Miss Snevellicci?" said Mr. Curdle, turning over four of those pieces of money.
Miss Snevellicci felt in all the corners of the pink reticule, but there was nothing in any of them. Nicholas murmured a jest about his being an author, and thought it best not to go through the form of feeling in his own pockets at all.
"Let me see," said Mr. Curdle; "twice four's eight—four shillings a-piece to the boxes, Miss Snevellicci, is exceedingly dear in the present state of the drama—three half-crowns is seven-and-six; we shall not differ about sixpence, I suppose. Sixpence will not part us, Miss Snevellicci?"
Poor Miss Snevellicci took the three half-crowns with many smiles
